


It's Classified

by doctorhelena



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Steggy Positivity Week 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 13:16:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15340659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctorhelena/pseuds/doctorhelena
Summary: Agent Carter confesses her feelings to Private Rogers the night before the Rebirth procedure, with unexpected consequences.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Steggy Week 2018, Day 3 (AUs and Crossovers). It is an AU set during Captain America: The First Avenger, and borrows a few lines of dialogue from the movie. Obviously, I didn't write those!

Peggy liked Dr. Erskine’s rather unlikely recruit from the very beginning. When Peggy introduced herself to the Rebirth candidates by shutting down a disrespectful idiot with a well-deserved right hook to the jaw, most of the recruits reacted by turning in shocked confusion to stare at their comrade on the ground. Private Rogers, though, directed his gaze straight at her, smiling broadly under his too-large helmet. Their eyes met, and something passed between them, an understanding.

Rogers never gave up, even though Peggy had read his medical file and knew there were dozens of reasons why he reasonably should. She was quite certain he was being hazed by the other recruits, but he never blabbed, and never allowed himself to be cowed, either. And he was smart. After he’d earned himself a ride in the jeep with her, the first recruit in 17 years to retrieve the flag, the two of them smiled at each other and she suddenly had to bite her lip to stop herself from saying something entirely too familiar in front of the driver.

She quietly took him aside and taught him how to fight. Every evening, while the other recruits were whiling away their few hours of free time, Peggy was teaching Steve to throw a proper punch, to duck and weave, to use his opponent’s momentum and bluster against him, to grapple and throw and apply chokeholds. It was hard to miss the occasional evidence of his body’s reaction to her, but he never presumed, never pushed. He did, the first time it happened, turn beet red and apologize instantly, and she assured him she was perfectly capable of ignoring it if he was.

She found herself thinking of it far more often than she should, though.

When Phillips tossed a dummy grenade into the midst of the Rebirth candidates, Steve was the only one besides Peggy to run towards it. She wanted very badly to throw herself on top of him, to fight alongside him, to protect him, to… to slide her lips down his neck, slowly unbutton his shirt, and find out for once and for all just how well they complemented each other. Oh, bloody hell.

It was entirely inappropriate of course, but she couldn’t stop thinking about it. The angles of his body. How he was a little shorter than she was, even in stocking feet. How his face would look as she reached down to wrap her hand around him, rocked herself against him, took him into her bed.

She’d outlasted strong crushes before, but this... was more than that. She valued his friendship, his humour, his - his _goodness_ , his refusal to be restrained by the odds against him. His heart. If - if the procedure went terribly wrong, if she never saw him alive again after they shut him in the chamber - well, it simply didn’t bear thinking about.

The night before the procedure, she lay awake for a long time before coming to a resolution. Stealing silently across the dark camp, she pressed herself into a dimly-lit alcove in the hallway outside the barracks room where Steve was now the only inhabitant, waiting as he chatted with Dr. Erskine. Finally Erskine left, a dark bottle of some sort of alcohol held in his hand, and Peggy fleetingly wished for some of that liquid courage for herself as she stepped quietly into the room.

Steve was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at nothing in particular. “Hello,” she said, and he jumped a little.

“Agent Carter.”

She took a deep breath. “It’s unofficial. Peggy.” He nodded but didn’t say anything, waiting. “I - I’d like to ask you something in confidence,” she said, finally. “You don’t have to say yes.”

He nodded. “Sure.” He looked a little thrown by her uncharacteristic hesitation. “You don’t need help getting rid of a body, do you?”

She huffed out a laugh. “No, it’s nothing like that. It’s… it’s personal, actually.” Heat was rising in her cheeks, and she stared down at her hands. “I just - I found that I couldn’t let you go into the procedure tomorrow without telling you that - that you mean a great deal to me.” She swallowed. “And I - it’s entirely against regulations. But - ”

She chanced a glance at him, and he was staring at her, open-mouthed.

She bit her lip. “I’d very much like it if you would kiss me.”

He was still staring. “But you - Peggy, you could kiss anyone you wanted. Why - ”

“Honestly, Steve,” she sighed, stepping closer. “Who would would you have me kiss? Private Hodge? I prefer the sort of man who is guided by his heart, and his brain, and his courage, rather than by... his ridiculous sense that he’s superior by virtue of what’s in his trousers.”

“Oh,” he said, simply, but he flushed a little. After a moment he glanced at the unobstructed window to the corridor, and Peggy followed his gaze to see two soldiers passing by. “I - are you sure? Me?”

She raised an eyebrow. “You can say no. I won’t hold it against you.”

“Oh no, I want to,” he said fervently, staring at her lips. “I just  - ”

She nodded briskly. “All right, then. But not here. Come with me.”

He gaped at her, but followed as she led him through the dark camp, stopping near the side doorway to the building that housed the officers’ quarters. “Would you like to come in?” she asked, quietly. “Of course, we’ll be in dreadful trouble if we’re caught, but I’m the only one in my corridor. For propriety’s sake, I suppose. I’m the only woman working on the Rebirth project who’s at Lehigh at the moment.”

He huffed out a laugh. “Seems to be backfiring a little.”

She elbowed him. “Rogers, I assure you, you’re the only man I’ve ever invited in here.” She cleared her throat. “And we only need a bit of privacy, I’m not suggesting that we - ”

He nodded. “Okay.” His fingers brushed against hers as he turned to look up at the building, and they both drew in a quick breath. Everything felt electric, charged with anticipation. “Anyway,” he added, practically, after a moment, “I doubt they’d cancel the procedure just because they caught me kissing a dame. A - a woman.”

She sighed. “Yes, they’d probably see it as an encouraging sign of your overall manhood. I, on the other hand - ” She broke off, shrugging. “It doesn’t matter. We simply won’t be caught.”

It was, in fact, almost ridiculously easy to get him into her room undetected, and she smiled at him as she closed the door behind her and turned the lock, leaning back against the frame. “Well.”

Now that they’d arrived at the moment of truth, Steve hesitated. “I’ve never actually - done this before,” he admitted, in a rush. “Kissed a girl. Not since I was a kid and practiced with my best friend’s sisters.”

Oh! Well, that - that was the female population of Brooklyn’s loss, then, wasn’t it? “Excellent, then you shouldn’t have picked up any bad habits,” she said with a tiny smile, and leaned forward.

He was awkward at first, thinking too much. But, as when she’d taught him to fight, he quickly grasped the principles and improved rather rapidly. Peggy soon found herself breathless, backed against the door with his hands tangled in her hair, and she realized with a shiver that bringing him to her room had either been a very good idea or a very bad one, because her knees were a little unsteady by the time he abruptly broke off the kiss, gasping for breath.

“Are you all right?” she asked, frowning. She was rather breathless herself, but Steve was wheezing, struggling to get enough air.

“I will be,” he managed between panting breaths. “Just need a minute.”

“Sit down,” she said, steering him to the bed. He sat, and she took the opportunity to remove her boots, watching him all the while. She knelt beside him. “Do you - do you need anything? Can I help?”

Steve shook his head, already breathing a little easier. “It’s just - it’s the asthma. It’s not a bad attack. I’ll be okay in a couple of minutes.” He gave her a rueful grin. “Good thing kissing isn’t part of basic training.”

Peggy smiled back as she sat down on the bed beside him, squeezing his knee. “I’ve seen you survive far more strenuous activity than this, Rogers.” She regarded him sideways. “And the kiss was rather good, I'll have you know.”

“Yeah?” he asked, looking pleased.

“Yes,” she said firmly, scooting sideways so that their bodies were touching, and staying there as his breathing gradually returned to normal. “There,” she said finally, in the brisk tone she generally used when correcting one of his fighting missteps. “Try not to hold your breath next time.”

His face was red. “Can we - can we try again?”

She smiled. “Yes.” She turned her body into his and wound her arms loosely around his neck. “Maybe we should keep your mouth free for breathing,” she said, kissing the corner of his mouth and then trailing small kisses all along his jawbone. He made a strangled sound, and she brought her lips back to his, smiling against him. “Good?”

“Yeah,” he said hoarsely, bringing his hands up to her jaw, and good Lord, he really was a fast learner. The next time Peggy came up for air she was lying half on top of him, one of his hands inside her blouse, their hips rocking together a little. They stared at each other.

“Do you - ” she swallowed. “Is this all right?”

“As long as I remember to breathe,” he said, slowly, looking a little dazed. She took a slow breath herself, then came to a sudden resolution. This might be the only - she wriggled over him to rummage in the duffle bag beside her bed, and his eyes widened even further as she showed him the tin of army-issued condoms.

“Are you sure?” he asked, and she could _feel_ the electricity dancing between them.

She nodded. “I - yes. If you are.” If he didn’t survive the procedure tomorrow… she wasn’t going to think of that. He nodded too, eyes wide, and then the tin was dropped, forgotten, on the bed beside them, and they were kissing again, this time with intent. She slid her hands inside his white t-shirt, and pushed it up and over his head, leaving his chest bare except for his dog tags. She bent down to explore this new territory with her tongue, humming, then arched back with a sudden gasp as he retaliated by sliding his hand down the front of her trousers. Good God. She squirmed into him. “I thought you’d never done this before.”

“I haven’t,” he said, sounding pleased with himself. “Is that okay?”

“Good Lord, Rogers. Yes. But, just a moment.” She wiggled away from him and unbuttoned her blouse, then her trousers, carefully hanging them over the back of her chair. Following her lead, he handed her his own trousers, which she draped over hers. They stared at each other.

“God, Peggy” he said, and then they were tangled together again, his hand sliding back inside her knickers, and she was rocking into him, pushing him back down on the bed and biting his lower lip as she slid her own hand below his waistband, curling her fingers around him.

It didn’t surprise her that he came apart rather quickly, with a strangled groan that he hastily buried in her shoulder. She waited as his breathing slowed, listening carefully to make sure he wasn’t wheezing.

He watched, mortified, as she wiped her hand on his discarded t-shirt. “I - I didn’t mean for that to happen so fast.”

She smiled. “You seemed to enjoy it.”

“I - I did,” he said, looking rather adorably bewildered, “but you - ”

She laughed. “There’s more than one way to skin a cat, soldier. You were doing quite well earlier.”

He took in a breath, looked down at his hand. “That... might have been a fluke.”

Peggy raised her eyebrows. “Have a little faith in yourself, Rogers. I promise, I’ll let you know if you - if you go - wrong.” He really was a delightfully fast learner. It didn’t take long at all for her directions to become rather incoherent, but it didn’t matter in the slightest because his fingers were - if he just kept - oh God - and then she was biting her own arm to muffle the strangled cry that escaped her as she crashed over the precipice in long, shuddering waves.

“You know, you’re rather good at feeling your way through a situation,” she said, a little hoarsely, once she’d recovered.

A slow grin crept across his face. “You liked it?”

“Don’t fish for compliments,” she said, her lips twitching a little despite herself. “I think I made my appreciation rather clear.” She showed him the bite mark on her arm.

He grinned more widely, bringing his fingers curiously up to his mouth and sliding them inside. Peggy’s breath caught as she watched him, suddenly very aware of the void his hand had left when he’d moved it away. “Is it true that girls can - can finish again right away?” he asked, watching her in return.

She nodded, a little breathless, and he looked at her thoughtfully, his pupils dark, colour high on his cheeks. “Do you - can I try something?”

She was already squirming by the time he’d managed to fumble off her brassiere and begin a tentative, maddening exploration of her breasts. When, finally, he looked up, met her eye, and began to lay a slow trail of kisses further downward, she resolutely clenched her hands in the sheets to stop herself from hurrying him along. She was so close already, tension coiled almost to the breaking point, and he only - if he - if he would just - she angled her hips in frustration, and suddenly she was tipping over the edge with such unexpected intensity that she had to hastily bury her face in her pillow so she didn’t have Colonel Phillips coming down two floors to investigate.

Steve caught his breath before she did, something he seemed rather proud of. “Seemed like you liked that too,” he said, straight-faced, as she propped herself up on one elbow and turned onto her side so he could pull himself up to lie down beside her on the narrow bed.

“Don’t think it’s going to be that easy every time, Rogers,” she warned, reaching out to trail the tips of her fingers along his collarbone. “I’ve been thinking of this rather a lot.”

He swallowed. “You have?”

She fixed him with a look. “Contrary to what you may have heard in the showers, I don’t generally invite men back to my room on a passing fancy.”

“That isn’t - I didn’t mean that,” he stammered. He took a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking about it too. But I guess I just - I never thought you’d actually be interested in me in that way. Most girls aren’t.”

“I’ll thank you not to belittle my taste in men, Rogers,” she said, eyebrow raised repressively. "I think you're quite a catch." She glanced down his body to check on his recovery, smiled, and let her fingers trail down onto his chest. “And I should hope you can tell by now that I’m rather sweet on you.” His breath hitched, and she smiled again, trailing her hand a little lower. “I suppose it’s getting late. Dr. Erskine would disapprove of my keeping you up like this.”

“I - to tell the truth, you keep me up pretty often,” he said, in a rather strangled voice, and she laughed, rummaging around on the bed with her other hand and coming up with the tin of condoms.

“Well, let’s see what we can do about that, shall we?”


	2. Chapter 2

Peggy was in full Agent Carter mode when she met him by the car to escort him to the lab the next morning. Steve knew she couldn’t possibly have had much more sleep than he had, but she looked fresh as a daisy and her attitude was all brisk business, as if there was nothing between them but professional courtesy.

Neither of them could say anything about last night in front of the driver of course, and, nerves getting the better of him, Steve began a rather stilted monologue in which he pointed out some of the many places he’d been beat up over the years. Peggy looked like she was fighting a smile, especially when Steve claimed that this was the longest conversation he’d ever had with a woman. To be fair, though, this actually was the longest conversation he and Peggy had ever had that wasn’t either periodically broken up by sparring or… or by what they’d been doing last night.

He'd - he'd been gone on Agent Carter since the moment she’d punched out Hodge, that very first day of Basic. And he’d been pretty sure she liked him, especially after she’d offered to teach him to fight. But even as he’d grown to value her friendship, he hadn’t thought in a million years that she might be sweet on him. A dame who looked like her wasn’t going to pick a 95 lb asthmatic who was deaf in one ear - except, apparently, she had.

He was pretty sure he wasn’t imagining the way she was looking at him as he told her he’d been waiting for the right partner. It was - God, if he died in that capsule, he could die happy with just the memory of Peggy Carter looking at him just like this.

She didn’t seem to want to leave him once they got to the lab, not even once he was in the capsule. Dr. Erskine had to remind her to go up into the viewing area with the others, and when the capsule was opened after everything was over, she was right there, eyes wide, reaching out as if in a daze to touch his chest for a split second before she remembered herself and snatched her hand away.

Afterwards, he only remembered the next few hours as a blur, taking his new body on a wild test flight. Running barefoot through Brooklyn chasing after the man who’d shot Dr. Erskine, crashing through a shop window, pushing an annoyed Peggy out of the way of a speeding car, diving into the water to stop a fleeing submarine, leaving a swath of destruction in his wake with nothing to show for it in the end but the small, although not entirely inconsequential, victory of having stopped Hydra from obtaining the last of the serum.

As Steve stared, unseeing, at his ridiculously large hands, then at the dead Hydra agent, Peggy came running up to him, panting. He watched her taking in the situation at a glance - the smashed vial, the foam bubbling from the dead man’s mouth.

Steve turned to her. “I - I couldn’t stop him. I didn’t realize he’d - ” Peggy nodded, her eyes wide with the same raw jumble of shock and adrenaline-fueled lust he was sure she could also see in his. They stared at each other.

“Cyanide,” she said, finally, her voice unusually hoarse. “Hydra agents are implanted with a false tooth containing cyanide. The only way to capture them alive is to knock them out before they can bite down on it.”

Steve nodded. “I’ll remember that for next time.” Neither of them looked away, and if it hadn’t been for the driver of the taxi Peggy had commandeered finally catching up with her, Steve thought he might have kissed her right then and there.

Instead, they waited while more SSR personnel arrived, cordoning off the spectators and examining the body of the Hydra agent. Steve’s clothes slowly dried, going from sopping wet to vaguely damp and itchy as he was debriefed by several different SSR operatives looking to contain the situation. Peggy spoke in a low voice to one of the commanding officers, both of them gesturing at Steve, and finally she beckoned him over, motioning towards the taxi she’d arrived in. “Colonel Phillips wants you back at the lab,” she said. “I’m going to escort you.”

It was the second time they’d ridden in a car together today, but the circumstances couldn’t have been more different. About the only thing that hadn’t changed was that they still couldn’t speak freely in front of the driver, and all the things they couldn’t say piled up thickly between them until Steve wasn’t entirely sure he was capable of speaking at all. Everything was starting to seem far away and fuzzy, and although his asthma hadn’t given him any trouble during the chase, he still felt that he couldn’t breathe properly, somehow.

“Phillips wants to see you in his office,” Peggy said as he followed her hazily through the antique shop and back into the base. She led him down a series of hallways he hadn’t seen before, and after a few concerned glances at him, she suddenly scanned the hallway and pulled him through an unmarked door, closing it into darkness before reaching up and pulling the chain of a single bare light bulb.

“What are we doing?” Steve asked, confused out of his daze, looking around at the mop and the shelves full of cleaning supplies. This clearly wasn’t Phillips’ office, and although Peggy was obviously willing to bend the rules about who was allowed in her room late at night, it didn’t seem at all like her to shirk her duties for a hurried midday encounter in a storage closet in the middle of a crisis.

She placed a hand on his chest. “I just - before the brass and the scientists all descend on you, I wanted to make sure you were all right. You seem - it would be entirely normal if you were in shock.”

“I’m fine,” Steve said, although he didn’t sound particularly convincing even to his own ears. “I’m - I should have caught that guy before he got to the cyanide pill, that’s all.” He blinked down at her. Even in the dim light he could see colours he’d never even imagined before the procedure, clearly hear the slightly rapid beating of her heart. “And - ” his breath hitched a little, “Dr. Erskine. I could have saved him, pushed him out of the way. Taken the bullet for him, maybe.” He showed her the bullet hole in the left side of his t-shirt where the Hydra agent had grazed him, and the smooth, unbroken skin beneath. “I - ” he swallowed. “It looks like I heal pretty fast now.”

Peggy stepped in, slid her arms around his waist and squeezed, resting her cheek on his chest, as he folded his arms around her. For a moment, they just breathed. “It wasn’t your fault,” she said, firmly, matter-of-factly. “You hadn’t been out of the capsule for more than a minute when Dr. Erskine was shot. Even a super soldier needs a little time to adjust to an entirely new body.” Steve made an unconvinced noise, and she sighed. “It was a failure of security. A Hydra agent never should have made it into the facility in the first place. I told Phillips it was foolish to invite all of those government observers. I should have pushed harder.”

“Erskine was a good man,” he said into her hair, and she nodded into his shirt.

“He would have been a rather good candidate for the serum himself,” she said, her voice a little thicker than usual.

“I - thank you. I’m glad you’re here,” he said, quietly, after a moment.

They were never, sure, later, who had started it. Only that somehow, one moment they were wrapped in an comforting hug, and the next they were kissing rather desperately, Peggy up on her toes to reach his mouth, Steve’s hands already sliding under her hastily-unbuttoned jacket and rucking up her shirt. He lifted her effortlessly and pressed her against the shelves, and she hurriedly tugged up her skirt, wrapping her legs around him as she brought her lips back to his. The electricity between them surged wildly.

Peggy arched against him, gasping into his mouth, and then broke off the kiss with an audible pop, her eyes wide. They stared at each other, panting. “Well, now we’ve done it,” she said, finally, in a husky, breathless voice. She looked down at where their hips were pressed together. “You certainly can’t go out there like this. Those - those trousers leave nothing to the imagination.”

They did feel pretty tight, especially since she kept squirming against him, shifting her position. “That - that really isn’t helping,” he managed, trying to think the least arousing thoughts he possibly could.

Peggy bit her lip and reached for his belt. “We’re expected in Colonel Phillips’ office any time now.” She cleared her throat, her cheeks flushed. “Sometimes the best way out is through.”

Steve felt that he should probably argue the point, but it was difficult when all he wanted was for her to keep doing what she was doing. “Peggy,” he gasped, as she slid her hand into his briefs, wrapping her fingers around him and wriggling herself even closer, “you don’t have to - ”

“I think you should be able to tell by now how much I want to,” she said, in her husky bedroom voice, and he was lost. She made an impatient, almost frantic sound and pulled her underwear to one side, and he slid gratefully into her, leaning in to kiss her, at least partly to muffle the incoherent noises she was already making. One thing he had learned last night was that Peggy Carter, despite her best efforts, was not quiet at this sort of thing.

Some things had changed, though, because last night he sure as hell wouldn’t have been able to hold Peggy up against a shelf of cleaning supplies, their hips meeting in eager strokes, and still have the wherewithal to dart out a hand to catch the large bottle of ammonia that slid suddenly off the shelf. Peggy let out a kind of laughing moan as he replaced the bottle further back against the wall, one of her hands raking through his hair, the other sliding down under her own skirt.

And then everything was - he - oh, he - God, his release was crashing over him, with an intensity that he thought might have actually done him in before his transformation. “All right?” asked Peggy, quietly, after a moment, and he nodded, not quite able to speak just yet. She kissed him quickly, her hips restless. “Oh, I’m so close. Just let me down. I'll - ”

He slid out of her and set her down on her feet, and she looped one of her arms around his neck, the other disappearing under her skirt again as she arched against him, hanging heavily by her arm, her head thrown back. Her face was a study in intense concentration blossoming into ecstasy, and she quickly muffled her face against his chest. “Crikey O’Reilly,” she said after a moment, into his shirt.

“Yeah,” he said, eloquently, watching as she brought her hand up to her mouth to clean off her fingers, which very nearly caused their original problem to start all over again.

She dried her hand on the bottom of her blouse and looked up at him, her eyes a little wide. “Do you feel better?” she asked, finally.

He nodded. “I - yeah.” He did, although he suspected this wasn’t the service’s approved method of snapping people out of shock.

“Good,” Peggy said. She tugged down her blouse, resettled her holster, and buttoned up her jacket, while Steve tucked himself back into his pants and refastened his belt. She surveyed him critically, then licked her first two fingers again and scrubbed at his face. “You’re wearing my lipstick,” she said, with a tiny smile.

He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Your hair actually stayed in place pretty well,” he said, as she reached into her skirt pocket for a compact and quickly redid her lipstick. She tilted the mirror to look at her hair and nodded.

“How are my stocking lines?” she asked, her breath hitching as he reached down to run his finger along beside the one on her right calf. He surveyed her critically. The lines were a little smudged and her skirt was undeniably wrinkled, but that could easily have happened during the chase. All in all, he thought she’d pass muster, and told her so.

She smiled. “Well, you look rather like you’ve been running a marathon with a brief detour into the harbour, but luckily that’s almost exactly what you have been doing. You’ll do.” She pulled the chain to extinguish the light, opened the door a crack, and used the mirror in her compact to check the hallway in both directions. “Quickly,” she said, and a moment later they were resuming their brisk walk as if it hadn’t been interrupted at all.

Peggy checked her watch. “Should anybody ask, we were delayed by traffic,” she said. “Too many rubberneckers trying to get a good view of the damage.”

Steve stopped still, eyes wide. Shit. “Rubber. Peggy, we didn’t - ”

Peggy nodded, ruefully. “I know.” She motioned for him to keep walking, and he took a couple of brisk steps then fell into place beside her. “I think it should be all right,” she said quietly, after a moment. “I know for a fact that neither of us have a venereal disease. And as for - as for the rest, our timing was rather good. I’m expecting my monthly to arrive in the next day or so.”

Steve blinked. Her - oh. The fact that he knew that about her felt somehow more intimate than everything that had just happened in the storage closet, and he still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around the fact that he and Agent Carter had just done that. “A VD is about the only thing I didn’t have before the serum,” he said, finally, and she smiled.

“I don’t - I don’t make a habit of this. Illicit encounters in storage rooms,” she said, after a moment. “I did kiss Lillian Smith in a linen cupboard at school once, on a dare, but it certainly didn’t go that far. And since I left school, it’s - ” She cleared her throat. “At any rate, here we are.”

Steve stared at her, mostly because he was pretty sure that had been nervous chatter. From Peggy Carter. “Right,” he said, bringing his mind back to the situation at hand. “Phillips isn’t going to be happy, is he?”

She shook her head, then shrugged. “He never is, really. Just act natural,” she said, out of the side of her mouth in a perfect American accent, and lifted up her hand to rap at the office door.

*****

Once Steve had been handed off to Howard Stark for the testing that was meant to have taken place immediately after the procedure, Peggy excused herself to visit the loo. After taking care of the necessities, she stayed at the mirror far longer than necessary, staring at her reflection, wondering what on earth had just happened.

She’d just - she’d just shagged an experimental subject in a storage room before he’d even been examined, in the midst of a legitimate wartime crisis. This was both very unlike her, and quite possibly a court-martial-able offence. At least - at least everybody seemed to have accepted their disheveled state at face value, even Howard. They had time to talk, to figure this out, to set some rules for this - whatever it was between them. She rather thought, and she could see herself smile in the mirror at this, that it might actually be a real, lasting romance.

In the meantime, though, they should probably avoid storage cupboards, just to be safe.

She returned to the lab to find everything in turmoil. Phillips was there, frowning, and Howard was waving his arms, addressing him in a loud, excited voice. “There isn’t time for meetings, the serum will stabilize within hours. If we want to make more super soldiers any time soon, it has to be now.”

Phillips shook his head. “How many more could we realistically make? I was promised an army of ‘em. Three or four, or even ten, isn’t going to cut it. Does me no good.” He glared over at Steve. “Besides, how much blood could we reasonably take? He might be bigger, but he doesn’t have an infinite supply. And all our other candidates are hours away.” He shook his head. “Sorry, son. It’s not going to happen.”

Howard shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’ll do my best to reproduce the formula, but Erskine didn’t leave a lot to go on. He kept his cards pretty close to his chest.”

Peggy nodded, stepping into the room. “After Red Skull, he was afraid of what his work might be used for. He preferred to take his knowledge to the grave rather than let it fall into the wrong hands.”

Phillips grunted.

Howard had gone back to his readings. “You’re emitting a lot of vita radiation,” he told Steve, after a moment, eyebrows raised.

Phillips frowned. “Is that dangerous? He got close to a boatload of civilians on his rampage through town.” He looked like he was already planning damage control, but Howard shook his head.

“The stuff’s harmless. Unless any of them were injected with the serum. Oh, shit.” He stared at Steve, then grabbed his pencil and started some rapid calculations. “We might have a problem,” he said, finally. “I think his radiation level is high enough that if anyone was exposed to any of his body fluids, blood or saliva or what have you, they might be a little bit enhanced. The serum is still so active.” He looked at Steve. “You didn’t bleed on anyone, did you?”

Steve shot a startled look at Peggy, then shook his head. “I did get shot, but I don’t think…” he frowned. “I was probably cut when I crashed through that window. I don’t know. Maybe.”

Peggy stared down at her hands. The skin on the knuckle of the baby finger of her right hand, which had been scraped off on the sidewalk when Steve had tackled her down, had bled rather profusely and had just started to scab over by the time she’d gotten into the cab with Steve to return to the lab. Now, though, the skin was as smooth as if the scrape had never been there at all.

Phillips shook his head. “Lord, this just gets better and better. Carter, we’ll need to check out anyone he might have come in contact with, just to make sure.” He turned to Howard. “Is it still a problem? Do we need to quarantine him?”

Howard shrugged. “The serum is stabilizing. Like I said, a couple of hours. Until then, we should be fine if he doesn’t touch anybody.”

Phillips rolled his eyes. “Well, let’s not take any chances. Son, you’re in quarantine as of further notice. No leaving this room until Stark says you’re clear.” Steve opened his mouth and Phillips rolled his eyes again. “It’s only a couple of hours. Pee in a test tube if you have to.”

Peggy had a feeling that hadn’t been what he was about to say.

*****

She was so busy rounding up civilians that she didn’t have much of a chance to think about her own situation until much later, as Howard finished the last of his testing and released Steve from his makeshift quarantine.

“Well,” Howard said, “we’ve tested everyone you rounded up, Peg, and none of ‘em have a trace of the serum. And now that it’s stabilized in Rogers’ blood, we have no way to make more super soldiers.” He looked over at Steve. “Looks like you’re the only one, pal, at least until I can recreate the serum.” He clapped Steve on the back.

Peggy met Steve’s eye, and cleared her throat. “You should - you should test me too, Howard,” she said, slowly.

Howard looked at her, eyebrows raised, then nodded. “Huh, yeah, you were with him all that time in the cab, weren’t you? He bleed on you?”

“Possibly,” she said, rolling up her sleeve. “It’s best to be certain.”

“Sure,” said Howard, motioning to one of the nurses, who smiled at Peggy and tied a piece of tubing around her upper arm, preparing for the blood draw. She efficiently drew the sample, and Peggy watched as the puncture mark closed up entirely before they had time to put on a bandage.

Howard raised his eyebrows and brought the sample over to the centrifuge, working in silence as Peggy tried to ignore the fact that she could feel everyone’s eyes on her. It was as if the room let out a collective breath when Howard looked up from his microscope, staring at her. “Wow,” he said, finally. “Phillips is going to kill us.”

*****

The Hydra camp was in Krausberg, tucked between two mountain ranges. “I should be able to drop you two right on the doorstep,” said Howard, as the aircraft shook. Steve looked at him, and he shook his head. “Just turbulence. We haven’t been spotted yet.” He looked at Peggy. “Got the transponder?”

She held it up, and Howard nodded. “You sure you want to go with him? We could drop him off and stop off in Lucerne for a late night fondue.” Peggy gave him a look and he laughed. “Yeah, didn’t think so. Well, maybe this’ll make Phillips take you both seriously.”

“That isn’t why we’re going,” said Peggy. Phillips hadn’t been happy with her transformation, but his grumbling had been more at fate, and at Steve’s rashness in chasing the Hydra agent, than at her. But, despite the fact that she could run faster, jump higher, and heal better than anyone but Captain America, Peggy’s transformation remained a closely guarded secret.

Over her objections, Steve had been sent on a USO tour selling war bonds, while Phillips had conceded, grumpily, that it couldn’t hurt for Peggy to have a little extra invulnerability in her line of work, and that unlike Rogers, she was already trained up and even useful from time to time. But both of them, she knew, could be so much more useful. It was rather maddening.

But right now, none of that mattered. They were here to rescue the captured 107th, which hopefully included Steve’s best friend. Should they survive, they’d deal with the rest later.

Howard looked over his shoulder again. “By the way, it didn't escape my notice that it took you two lovebirds a couple of hours to come find me after the show was over.” He smirked at them, and Peggy shrugged. They had, indeed, disappeared together for quite some time before they’d actually got around to any sort of conversation, and once Steve had heard the news about the 107th they’d gotten dressed rather hurriedly to go find Phillips and then Stark. She - as odd as it sounded - trusted Howard not to say anything.

Howard grinned. “Thought so. You two looked about as put-together as you did when you rushed into Phillip’s office that day you both got the serum.” Peggy stared at him, and he smirked again. “I didn’t put anything about it in the reports. But, given the timeline, there’s no way Steve’s cuts weren’t all healed up by the time you got to him. And you were clearly exposed to his bodily fluids somehow. Maybe you were just kissing, maybe more. But I’m pretty damn sure you weren’t stuck in traffic as long as you said you were.”

“Oh,” she said, and out of the corner of her eye she could see that Steve had gone beet red. She’d never been so happy to come under enemy fire as she was a moment later when the plane suddenly shuddered and dove. She and Steve looked at each other and moved as one towards the open door.

“Hold on!” called Howard, “I can still take you all the way in.”

Peggy looked at Steve and held out her hand. “As soon as we’re free, get the hell out of here,” he called up to Howard, and laced his fingers around hers.

They smiled at each other, and jumped, together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why yes, this is a stealth Peggy!Cap origin story. :)


End file.
